[What is new in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia?]

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the most important infectious disease in Germany. After 3 years of data recording, the country-wide competence network CAPNETZ presents reliable data on etiology and course of the disease, based on more than 3,500 prospectively observed patients. In the acute phase, lethality is as high as nearly 10%, and in the 6-month follow-up period after the acute infection, lethality is > 15%. A reliable detection of the underlying pathogen is possible in less than half of all patients studied. The most frequent pathogens are Streptococcus pneumoniae (40%), Haemophilus influenzae, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (8% each). Legionella (3%) and Chlamydia pneumoniae (< 1%) are rarely found, and gram-negative enterobacteriaceae (< 5%) are restricted to high-risk patient groups (nursing home, multimorbidity). CAPs due to pneumococci, legionella or enterobacteriaceae were associated with increased lethality. Problems with resistances had not been found in Germany, except for a decreasing susceptibility of S. pneumoniae to macrolides. Viruses could be detected in nearly 15% of all pneumonia patients. The CRB-65 score allows a reliable discrimination between patients with a high and low risk of dying. The new S3 guideline for diagnosis and treatment of CAP recommends a risk-adapted treatment. Low-risk patients shall receive a monotherapy with, e. g., amoxicillin, high-risk patients should be treated with a broad-spectrum combination therapy (beta-lactam and macrolide).